Tag Archives: Family Trip to Arizona

Leftovers from Arizona

For our family archives I’m adding the rest of the photos I have from our time in Arizona from January 13th to the 19th of 2021. Jaymison’s first ride down the slide with his daddy.

Daddy made sure JJ stayed above the water!

Addy became quite a pro on coming down the slide all by herself!

I shared about the epic birthday party for our two sons on Saturday the 16th but our daughter-in-law Jamie had a birthday, too, on Friday the 15th. For her day we watched the grands while Dan and Jamie enjoyed brunch out all by themselves and also enjoyed shopping at Target after brunch without their kids in tow. On Friday night we went out to Texas Roadhouse for dinner and that photo of Dan, Jamie, Jaymison and Addyson was taken by Laura while we waited for our table.

Our grands are blessed beyond measure with aunts and uncles that love them and are attentive to them.

Instead of grass in Arizona people have rock or faux grass in their yards.

While the ladies had a shopping outing without the grands the guys took them to a couple parks.

 

Uncle Andrew and JJ.

Daddy and JJ.

Most everyone contributed some time in putting our Arizona Jigsaw puzzle together.

On Monday night the 18th of January we had another meal out at Amigos Restaurant. Dear tried a new to all of us dish called Molcajete Cielo Mary Tierra, mouth watering steak, grilled chicken, shrimp, chorizo, grilled green onions, grilled nopales, jalapenos, in a molcajete stone. Served with sides of rice, beans, tortillas, guacamole and pica de gallo. I should have shared this dish with Dear.

Such special times with our grands and all our kids.

Our trip to Arizona was the first airplane trip we’ve taken since the Covid restrictions on wearing masks were mandated on airplanes. I found out early in our flight that this cute mask that came From ‘Russia with Love’ was quite painful on my ears and I had to use my MacGyver skills to attach the mask to my glasses instead of my ears. On one of our shopping trips to Old Navy in Arizona we all bought 4paks of masks and they were so much more comfortable and adjustable. Hooray. I might try and replace the ear pieces on this mask to make it more comfortable.

On Tuesday the 19th we said our goodbyes to our temporary home in the sun.

Until the next time we treasure these memories.

We are back here in Colville for well over a week now and we had a few inches of snow overnight from Wednesday until Thursday. Thursday was a very nonproductive day at our country bungalow. We made good progress on putting together our latest jigsaw puzzle while enjoying the snow views out our windows.

This is a 1000 piece puzzle and the pieces are oversized so it is larger than most 1000 piece puzzles. We only have about 100 pieces left on this puzzle and it will be done on Friday for sure.

Hope January ends well for all of you with a lovely weekend! I’ve put up a few Valentine Day Decorations already. Do you have Valentine Day decor that you put up?

Wildlife

I wanted to add the rest of the animals we enjoyed during our zoo and aquarium experience while we were in Arizona in the middle of January.

We did see a very majestic Lion but it’s hard to get a good photo through a fence.

We all had a good time at the zoo. The fact that it was a short ten minute ride from the house we were staying in was a plus. This was our first full day in Arizona and while the kids napped some of us made a trip to Costco to buy food for dinner and to stock up the fridge. We enjoyed Costco Rotisserie Chickens, their macaroni and cheese, Caesar saIads and fresh bread. We had enough chicken leftover to enjoy chicken Caesar salads for lunch the next day. I still have some catch-up posts from Arizona that I’ll add soon.

A Pokemon Party

We had so much fun and laughter at the birthday party for our two sons celebrating 40 and 42!

The Pokemon Choo Choo Train Cake. Our son Dan has had choo choo train cakes starting at his 3rd birthday. He didn’t get one every year but was always happy when they appeared on his day.

Our daughter-in-law put together an epic Pokemon themed party for the brothers while we were in Arizona.

These oreos decorated like Poke Balls were used for one of our games.

Poke Ball themed veggie and fruit trays.

We all got to choose the ears we wanted to adorn our heads with. Jamie made all of them. The different ears have names but I’m clueless.

We were all good sports and entered into all the party games! Not to brag but I won two of the games, move the oreo from your forehead to your mouth without dropping it or using your hands and a poke launch game.

Granny Great and Jim traveled from their snowbird location in Arizona (close to the border with California) to join in on the fun. They live in Colville from March through most of November and then travel down to Arizona for the late fall and winter months.

We tried to reenact this photo from Dan’s 10th birthday party.  Once I get my hands on the original photo from 1991, I’ll add it here.

It was an epic day celebrating our sons and hats off to our daughter-in-law who planned and stealthily managed to create and transport all the goodies to Arizona from Washington.

Birthday brothers…

We ended the party with a swim and some of us kept our ears on.

For my records we enjoyed this birthday celebration on Saturday January 16th, 2021.

Back to the present, we are looking at getting some good snow this week starting on Sunday evening. Time will tell if the predictions are correct. They are talking about an accumulation of 13 inches this week.

Round and Round We Go

The Wildlife Zoo called this ride their Carousel. Addy chose this horse to ride and JJ chose the dog.

Carousels and Merry-Go-Rounds, whatever you call them, kids of all ages enjoy them. I think this was JJ’s first ride on one.

Addy was cold and her coat was in the car so she borrowed Auntie Katie’s sweatshirt.

Our family of 10 were in Arizona from January 13th until January 19th. Our trip to the Wildlife park was on Thursday January 14th. I enjoy the desert in winter, how about you? Escaping a snowy winter with freezing temps to a desert winter in the 60’s and 70’s is a treat.

Back here in Colville we have had sunshine but our temps have been in the teens. We are promised some new snow showers on Sunday.

The Best of the Birds

When our family of ten were in Arizona we enjoyed our time at the Wildlife World Zoo and Aquarium.

Not a problem for our time at the park.

Addy did not appreciate some of the animal odors.

Posting all our Arizona adventures for our family archives.

On Thursday we drove south to Spokane to buy a new toilet for our Master Bath. Besides the Home Depot we shopped at Hobby Lobby, Total Wine and Costco. On our trip south we listened to a sermon from Grace Community Church by John MacArthur. 2020 Clarity. We found it encouraging. We returned home and our new toilet was installed before 6 PM! Thank you Dear!! Friday evening and Saturday morning Dear and I are attending a marriage seminar at our church here in Colville.

Hope you all have a great weekend.

Family Hodgepodge

Thank you to Jo for coming up with questions this week even though her daughter’s wedding was this past weekend!

For Hodgepodge Wednesday questions we were with all our kids and grands in Arizona, flying out later on Tuesday afternoon. I posed  some of these questions to them for fun.

1. What’s something we’d find you doing most afternoons?

Dear and I eat dinner most afternoons, not in the evening.

2. Who do you take after? In what way(s)?

I’m more like my mother, snarky but willing to feed a crowd.

Joshua takes more after me, more of a people person and more adventurous and willing to spend money. Dan is a mix of me and his dad, jumps in to get things done more introverted like his dad with the best one liners coming out of nowhere. Katie is mostly her dad, more introverted, the brightest in the bunch and smart cracking.

3. ‘After every storm comes a rainbow’ or ‘the calm before the storm’...which phrase do you relate to more right now? Tell us why?

Most of the group was ‘after every storm comes a rainbow’. I tend toward looking on the bright side and knowing things will turn out in the end. Because Jesus is our Savior and Lord we know who holds the future and that Hope brings us through the storms of life.

Our daughter says…”how about in the eye of the hurricane?”

4.What are your plans for the day after tomorrow?

We will be back home after a week in the sun trying to catch up with laundry and mail and bills, etc.

5. Complete this sentence-“After all is said and done_____________________.”

From Andrew: …naptime.

Laura: …it’s over.

Joshua: …atta boy.

Jamie: …,satisfied.

Ellen: …time to relax.

Greg: …I wouldn’t change a thing.

Katie: …the best is yet to come.

6. Insert your own random thought here.

The parties are over and it’s time to come back home to Winter…

Arizona Log Ride

We had planned on a family trip to Disneyland this year but plans changed and it worked out to have a family week in Arizona instead. This isn’t the log ride at Disneyland but it was just right for our almost 4 year old, Addy. This ride was at the Wildlife World Zoo and Aquarium.

 

It was a fun way to end our time at the Wildlife park…being a little wild!

Running Nonstop!

Busy, busy, chasing these two! I’ll be back to normal living on Wednesday. Hope y’all are doing well.

We’ve been enjoying lots of family time in the home our son is part owner of here in Arizona. A nice large space with a pool for us all to enjoy! Each couple has their own room, too, along with a room for Addy. An amazing property. Two birthday celebrations down with one more to go!

I’ll be visiting blogs again later this week!